Letters opposing repatriation

In August/September 1945, more than 200 Displaced Persons (DPs) from Camp “Ohio” in Burgdorf near Hannover protested against the impending repatriation to their respective home countries – Eastern European countries in the Soviet sphere of interest. The majority of letter writers hailed from the former Polish regions of Western Ukraine, but also from Poland, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, or Romania. They were patriots, anti-communists, or feared being accused of collaboration with the Nazis. “My return there would be possible only when the regime changes to a democracy not only on paper but in fact”, wrote 51-year-old Mary Shik, who left Cracow and fled to the West in October 1944.